quotations about silence
I love your silences, they are like mine.
ANAIS NIN
Under a Glass Bell
I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue.
XENOCRATES
attributed, The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations
Silence is like nightfall. Objects are lost in it insensibly.
MADAME SWETCHINE
"Airelles", The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Great hearts are free of either want or wish;
They may be proud and richly clothe themselves
In lofty, burdenless, mysterious Silence.
CARMEN SYLVA
"Out of the Deep"
Deep vengeance is the daughter of deep silence.
VITTORIO ALFIERI
La Congiura de' Pazzi
Down through the starry intervals,
Upon this weary-laden world,
How soft the soul of Silence falls!
How deep the spell wherewith she thralls,
How wide her mantle is unfurled.
MARY CLEMMER AMES
"Silence"
Silence is so freaking loud.
SARAH DESSEN
Just Listen
Of what is great one must either be silent or speak with greatness.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
The Will to Power
He never labored so hard to learn a language as he did to hold his tongue.
HENRY ADAMS
The Education of Henry Adams
There is a silence, the child of love, which expresses everything, and proclaims more loudly than the tongue is able to do; there are movements that are involuntary proofs of what the soul feels.
VITTORIO ALFIERI
attributed, Forty Thousand Quotations, Prose and Poetical
Well-timed silence is the most commanding expression.
MARK HELPRIN
attributed, Quotable Quotes
Three things are ever silent--Thought, Destiny, and the Grave.
EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON
Harold
Silence is learned by the many misfortunes of life.
SENECA
Thyestes
To which Silence of course made no reply, letting him hear what he had said and feel its foolishness thoroughly.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
Tales from Earthsea
Silence is one of the hardest kinds of arguments to refute.
H. W. SHAW
attributed, Day's Collacon
Behind the word is silence. Behind that silence is forgetfulness.
GIANNINA BRASCHI
Empire of Dreams
There are haunters of the silence, ghosts that hold the heart and brain.
MADISON CAWEIN
Haunters of the Silence
I decided it is better to scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity.
NADEZHDA MANDELSTAM
Hope Against Hope
Silence often enables us to see other people's imperfections, and helps us to conceal our own, but people with whom we associate might reasonably suspect us of emptiness if we indulge our inclination for silence on all occasions.
WALTER MATTHEWS
"Silence and Concentration", Human Life from Many Angles
There are some things best contemplated in silence. Their proportions are so vast that speech cannot get around them.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought